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15 Reasons Why Barack Obama’s Debt Commission Is An Exercise In Futility – The U.S. Government Will Never Have A Balanced Budget Ever Again

By Michael Snyder, on November 11th, 2010

In a surprise move, the co-chairs of Barack Obama’s national debt commission released their preliminary proposals to the media on Wednesday. The proposals are actually quite modest – they recommend that nothing be implemented until 2012 because of the weak economy, and their plan would not balance the federal budget until 2037 – but almost as soon as it was released Democrats and Republicans both started screaming bloody murder about how they would not support it. The truth is that virtually none of our politicians are willing to make the hard choices that would be necessary to get the national debt under control. Today, the U.S. national debt is rapidly approaching 14 trillion dollars and it is growing at an exponential rate. It is the single largest debt in the history of the world, and it has increased in size for 53 years in a row. It would be very difficult to understate the true horror of the debt that the U.S. federal government has accumulated. So what is the solution? As you will see below, there isn’t one. In fact, it will be an absolute miracle if our leaders are able to even slow down the rate at which the debt is growing in the years ahead.

The deficit reduction plan put forward by Erskine Bowles, a former White House chief of staff under Bill Clinton, and Alan Simpson, a former Republican Senator from Wyoming does not even have support from the rest of Barack Obama’s national debt commission. There is no way that either most Democrats or most Republicans in Congress will ever accept it. But at least the Bowles-Simpson plan is making headlines around the world and has brought the national debt back to the center of the political debate in this country.

In some ways, the Bowles-Simpson plan is a complete and total fantasy. For example, it assumes that the U.S. economy is going to fully recover and will experience solid growth for many years to come. That simply is not going to happen. The prosperity of the last couple of decades has been fueled by the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world, and there is no way that is going to continue. At some point the U.S. economy is going to fall apart like a house of cards.

But even if the U.S. economy could magically meet the projections contained in the Bowles-Simpson plan, it still contains a whole host of “poison pills” which make it completely and totally unacceptable to both political parties….

*The plan calls for deep cuts to U.S. military spending. The Republicans will never go for that.

*The plan reduces Social Security benefits to most retirees in future decades. The Democrats will never go for that.

*The plan raises the Social Security payroll tax cap to $190,000. The Republicans will never go for that.

*The plan envisions a very slow rise in the retirement age from 67 to 68 by 2050 and finally to 69 by 2075. The Democrats will never go for that.

*The plan includes a “less generous” annual cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security benefits. Considering the fact that Social Security benefits are already not going to see an increase this upcoming year, this proposal is likely to upset a large number of seniors.

*The plan calls for the federal tax on gasoline to approximately double by 2015. The Republicans would never go for that, and if that was ever implemented it would have a very serious negative impact on the economy.

*The plan would eliminate the deductibility of mortgage interest payments. Millions upon millions of homeowners would be absolutely furious.

*The plan would tax health benefits provided by employers. That would make millions of people very angry.

*The plan also calls for huge cuts in farm subsidies. There are a lot less farmers than there used to be, but that would still be extremely unpopular.

But the truth is that hard choices need to be made. The national debt is spinning wildly out of control. The U.S. government is essentially bankrupt.

Unfortunately, the majority of the federal budget is made up of entitlement programs. Entitlement programs are not subject to budget freezes or budget cuts – unless Congress changes the underlying laws. But any change to major entitlement programs would potentially upset millions of voters.

Not that there are not other areas that could be cut. Today, the average federal worker earns far more than the average private sector worker. In fact, wages for federal workers have been escalating at a frightening pace. In 2005, 7420 federal employees were making $150,000 or more per year. Today, 82,034 federal employees are making $150,000 or more per year. That is more than a tenfold increase in just five years.

But any major cuts to federal spending are going to really upset a lot of voters, and our politicians really, really like to get re-elected. The kinds of cuts that are really needed will never get through the Democrats in Congress and the Republicans in Congress and signed into law by Barack Obama. There are just way too many things that both major political parties consider to be “untouchable”.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government debt continues to explode. The debt is already so big, interest on that debt is scheduled to escalate so dramatically, and we have made so many unsustainable promises regarding Social Security and Medicare that it is basically impossible to balance the federal budget at this point. If serious attempts were actually made to balance the budget in 2011, it would likely create a financial panic, and suddenly sucking over a trillion dollars in federal spending out of the system would crash the economy.

The following are 15 facts that reveal just how obscene the U.S. national debt has become, and why it is now basically impossible to balance the budget of the U.S. government at this point….

#1 On average, the U.S. government accumulates about 4 billion dollars more debt each day.

#2 In just the last 30 years the U.S. government has accumulated 12 trillion dollars more debt.

#4 The U.S. government has to borrow 41 cents of every dollar that it currently spends.

#5 If the U.S. government was forced to use GAAP accounting principles (like all publicly-traded corporations must), the annual U.S. government budget deficit would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 trillion to $5 trillion.

#7 Approximately 57 percent of Barack Obama’s 3.8 trillion dollar budget for 2011 consists of direct payments to individual Americans or is money that is spent on their behalf. Any attempt to reduce those payments will make a lot of people very angry.

#9 Back in 1950, each retiree’s Social Security benefit was paid for by approximately 16 workers. Today, each retiree’s Social Security benefit is paid for by approximately 3.3 workers. By 2025 it is projected that there will be approximately two workers for each retiree.

#10 According to an official U.S. government report, rapidly growing interest costs on the U.S. national debt together with spending on major entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare will absorb approximately 92 cents of every dollar of federal revenue by the year 2019. That is before a single penny is spent on anything else.

#11 Right now, interest on the U.S. national debt and spending on entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare falls somewhere between 10 percent and 15 percent of GDP each year. By 2080, they are projected to eat up approximately 50 percent of GDP.

#12 The present value of projected scheduled benefits exceeds earmarked revenues for entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare by about 46 trillion dollars over the next 75 years.

#13 After analyzing Congressional Budget Office data, Boston University economics professor Laurence J. Kotlikoff concluded that the U.S. government is facing a “fiscal gap” of $202 trillion dollars.

#14 At our current pace, the Congressional Budget Office is projecting that U.S. government public debt will hit 716 percent of GDP by the year 2080.

#15 Sometimes we forget just how big a trillion dollars is. If right this moment you went out and started spending one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars. The U.S. national debt increased by more than a trillion dollars last year, it will increase by more than a trillion dollars this year and it is being projected to increase by more than a trillion dollars the following year.

We are literally drowning in debt. We have been living beyond our means for decades, and most Americans do not understand that eventually that is really, really going to start catching up with us.

Already, the United States is fading as an economic power. According to the Conference Board, China will surpass the United States and will become the biggest economy in the world by the year 2012.

That is just two years away.

So how did we get into such a mess? Well, it all goes back to the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913. The Federal Reserve was created to enslave the United States government in an endlessly growing spiral of debt from which it would never be able to escape.

That is exactly what has happened. Our money is actually debt-based. That is why they are called “Federal Reserve notes”. When the Federal Reserve creates more money for the U.S. government to borrow, it does not also create money for the interest to be paid on that debt. Eventually the U.S. government is forced to borrow even more money just to keep up with the game.

Today, if you gathered up all of the physical currency from every bank, every business and every individual in the United States, you would not even put much of a dent in the national debt. That is how bad things have gotten.

A lot of people got elected to Congress by promising to balance the federal budget and by promising to start reducing the U.S. national debt. But those ships have sailed. The U.S. government will always have a national debt under the Federal Reserve system, and things have gotten so bad financially for our government that it is now virtually impossible to even balance the budget for a single year.

In the 90s, the Clinton administration and the Republican Congress briefly balanced the federal budget by “borrowing” massive amounts of money from the Social Security surplus. Using GAAP accounting, the budget was not even close to balanced at that point, but many point to that time as a moment when the U.S. government was at least somewhat fiscally responsible.

Well, the Social Security surplus is gone forever. Now we have a Social Security deficit which is only going to explode in size in future years.

In addition, the financial condition of the U.S. government has deteriorated enormously over the past 10 years, and things only look worse the further you look into the future.

Meanwhile, the U.S. economy is falling to pieces all around us. We are experiencing our longest bout of serious long-term unemployment since the Great Depression, 42 million Americans are on food stamps and the United States is being deindustrialized at a pace that is mind blowing.

As America continues to get poorer, the U.S. government is going to really struggle to raise revenue. But interest payments and financial obligations are projected to escalate wildly. At this point it is really hard to envision a scenario that does not lead to the eventual financial collapse of the U.S. government.

So do you think that you have a solution to this gigantic mess? If so, feel free to post it in the comments section below….

“Today, if you gathered up all of the physical currency from every bank, every business and every individual in the United States, you would not even put much of a dent in the national debt.” Now it can not get much worse than that! Seems pretty impossible to recover at this point.

Gary2

I could care less about the debt or deficit. All that money that went to the banks was done in 1 long weekend. If that kind of urgency was put into restoring the middle class and reversing stagnating incomes etc just think what could be done.

They had better not touch ssi until they tax the heck out of the rich and corporations. All the tax cuts for the rich are a big reason we have a deficit in the first place.

Albert

14 Trillion Dollars ? I thought the National Debt was WAY much higher to the tune of 50 to 70 trillion dollars when one counts the unfunded liabilties like social security etc. I could be wrong and would love to hear from other reader about the actual total of the National Debt of the USA.

http://brunolem.wordpress.com Brunolem

First, long term projections are often ridiculous: 2019, 2035, 2050, 2080…

Just let’s imagine that this year is not 2010, but 1910.
And now let’s imagine governments and pundits making projections till 1920 (ooops…WWI), till 1935 (ooops…the Great Depression), till 1950 (ooops…WWII).

The point is: there always have been, and always will have, black swan events during such a long time span.

Human life and its associated economy are not linear, but chaotic.

Obviously, the US is driving at full speed in a dark blind alley, ending with a brick wall. The wall may still be far away, but there are plenty of traps on the way, that the driver can’t see… many manhole covers have been stolen lately, leaving treacherous holes along the way…

Instead of trying to anticipate the crash by means of calculations and projections, I would rather be ready as if the crash was to happen anytime from now!

For more, click on my name to visit my blog.

CJFYuma

I agree with the author. There is no cure for the terminally ill patient. The only good news left for the moribund US government is that death, and financial collapse, will be swift, and will come sooner then we think – somewhat like suicide. We won’t have to wait around and suffer the debt disease for another 75 years.

Economic collapse is projected to start in 2011, with the US defaulting on debts following shortly thereafter (2012 the latest). Watch California – they’re ready to go belly-up pretty soon. Once the big states start going belly-up, and run out of money for operating budgets, Uncle Sam won’t be far behind in the bread line, holding out his tin cup. Except this time, nobody is going to throw money in his cup. He’s frowned upon lately as a hopeless, wanton debt addict.

Conv.

I’ve heard Rep.Rand paul wants to sieze Fed. Because he undestands the root cause’s Fed. and obama proposed to take tax on $250,000 income, but that much income means free market companies, so the tax bill should be re-considered. because it’s important to rise employment rate. I hope repubilcans take action more responsibly.
Tax rich, big rich and eliminate unneccesity industrial regulations to rebuild industry. But how long will it takes to do those things? Should be hurry..Whatever needed to fix problem, it would be painful..

James K

what about :-

1) The elite who organised and implemented stuff called credit cards, credit, debt etc. They knew it would implode, and now it has.

2) Bush, greenspan, bernanke are all part of the same boys club. They do not care about anyone but themselves. When we are screaming about high cost of things, then those in charge of the NWO will have us right where they want us. Time to prepare was yesterday.

This country isn’t fighting to “stay on top”. We are fighting to stay alive.

Would eliminating the Fed and the IRS help?

Bruce

Maria you have it eliminated the Federal Reserve and the IRS and rebuild this country.

But we have to many lazy entitled welfare queens like Gary wanting to tax and regulated everything in your life so he can have a free ride. Until Americans grow up and start working for the betterment of the country and stop looking to become the top welfare queen we are doomed. There is a very rude awakening going to slap the lazy welfare queens up side the head real quick. True survival well come into to play. Then the cry baby welfare queens well try to steal what they need to survive.Then the cleansing well begin deadbeats when be removed from the gene pool.

Reality is coming to America real quick and the useless whining progressive liberal crying about some fake endangered species are going to have to grow up. I bet they are scare little children right now.

And that’s the problem with Socialism… Eventually you run out of other people’s money and everybody goes broke.

http://economiccollapse Dang

The american people declare the u.s. Gov go bankrupt. Before it takes all the wealth that left in the american people. Start from scratch. From this day on the gov cant spend more then it takes in from taxes. Since the gov went bankrupt no one will lend us a dime. Not even the americam people. To fix the economy I would declare the end of social secrity. I would give a buy out of .25cents on the dollar. of what you put in. Print these dollar up on the printing d presses. An let capitalism take hold again without gov

http://leibowitzsociety.blogspot.com Leibowitz Society

The solution at this point is to realize that there is no solution to the mess and start preparting for the inevitable collapse and ensuing chaos. Anyone who was born in 1980 or before got to experience the best material circumstances of what human civilization has ever had to offer — anyone alive after 2008 is going to experience that same society go off a cliff as everything, including food, becomes scarce and the “lights go out” in our lifetimes. It didn’t have to be this way — it would have only taken restraint and sanity on the part of our political and economic leadership to rein in spending and promote sensible and sustainable growth and living. Unfortunately, that doesn’t get votes, so now we are locked into a crumbling system which is going to fall apart at an ever-increasing rate.

At http://leibowitzsociety.blogspot.com/ I offer my best solution to our oncoming collapse — understand it’s going to happen, know that there’s not much anyone can do about it, and preserve and safeguard the most important knowledge of our civilization through the chaos of the looming new dark age.

There are solutions – tons of them. Problem is, not enough people agree to any of them. Analogy: the house catches fire and is burning fast – only enough time to go in and save 1 thing – wife & husband stand outside arguing whether they should charge in and save his golf clubs or her china collection – during the argument the house has burned completely to the ground and nothing is saved. The house is the USA – our “house” is going to burn completely to the ground while we stand next to it arguing about what we should do to save it.

zack

Even if this plan was implemented, it’s like trying to prevent a tsunami with a toothpick. It’s absurd to think that the government won’t continue to add new programs as the economy falters. What we needed to see from this commission was drastic cuts – reducing the budget 10% a year until it’s down to 50% of it’s current level. Instead, we get watered down gruel.

Raise taxes. As the Bush tax cuts expire, continue to raise them until the private sector again starts to invest in the USA economy. It happened before and it can happen again. Just look at any valid chart comparing tax rates and the level of “balanced budgets”. Also the world economies’s integration will have to revise itself. That is already happening. Countries will turn to protectionism to get their own houses in order.

Mr Carpenter

Frankly, it’s too late to save the ship by eliminating the Fed and the IRS.

Ironically, I’ve been a supporter of the Libertarians (from 1980 to about 1995) and then from then on I’ve been a supporter of the US Taxpayer Party (now called the Constitutional Party except in Michigan) since then, both of which have been saying to get rid of the IRS and the Fed for 30 plus years.

Lord knows, I’ve tried to talk sense into as many people as I could over the past 30 years, having essentially surmised that these days would be upon us.

Can anyone guess how many people listened to me during that 30 years?

Goose egg. None. Nobody. Zero.

I guess when you have a nation which can only vote for the perceived “lesser of two evils” you can’t expect to get any government except more “evil.”

The US is and has been spiritually, then morally and now fiscally bankrupt for some time and YES they are connected. ONE FOLLOWS THE OTHER. It’s as inevitable as a sunrise tomorrow.

The ship of state long ago rammed the iceburgs and just as the infamous Titanic, it is past where the ship may be saved.

It is going to be time very soon to hit the “reset” button and watch as what was a united country, collapse and quite literally fall to bits and several pieces.

May God help us all. (But then again, just why should He? It’s not like we’ve collectively honored Him in any way – quite the opposite).

http://getoffthedollar.com MikeA

As the author points out, it isn’t just the welfare state. It’s the welfare state of mind.

Marcia

WE’RE DOMMED!!!!! George Soros and obama finished up screwing us all…
we’ll be slaves of china and SOCIALISM WILL TAKE THIS COUNTRY.

SOROS IS THE KING OF THE WORLD ON THE EXPENSIVE OF THE UNITED STATES.

Margaret Bartley

I really appreciate this article, and other, in-depth articles you’ve published.
One thing, though, is that I don’t think we cant talk about the federal deficit without looking at military spending in as much detail as we do domestic spending. That includes the black budget, as well.
How many troops do we have stationed around the world? My understanding is that there are about 400,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that there are about 1.5 million troops in uniform.
Where are the other million troops? Why are we supporting the economies of countries around the world with our military bases? I have family members in the military, and I’m always hearing about the good deal the military gives the locals when the military unloads their surplus inventory, on a regular basis.
The waste and fraud in the military makes the civilian sector look like pikers. Why not examine that first?

How much are spending on the military, and to what purpose? How much are we paying contractors? I’ve been a contractor for my local government, and I’ve seen the invoices contracting agencies send to the departments, and the hourly rates are way more than the $150,000 a year that you cite in your article. I suspect that the military rates are even higher.

Remember Don Rumsfield announcing on September 10, 2001 that the Pentagon “lost” 2 trillion dollars? That was just in one year! The Pentagon “lost” 2 trillion dollars.

I don’t think we should be looking at cutting old folks’ pensions and asking them to choose between food and heat when there is that much slop in the military.

http://www.suburban-self-reliance.com Jerry

I don’t know if there’s a solution, either, but how about taking a couple hundred billion off the top of the so-called defense budget?

Particularly the US intelligence community budget. The only thing really Top-Secret about what goes on, anymore, is that there are a lot of fat asses watching YouTube, etc., while performing their “daily tasks.”

Tim

The Debt Commission’s proposals, while commendable, wouldn’t make a dent in the national debt, let alone the many trillions in unfunded liabilties of the U.S. government. And to think that that MORON Nancy Pelosi called the Commission’s ideas “simply unacceptable” is just outrageous. She and so many other members of Congress are so detached from reality.

There is no solution to this problem, especially not with the kind of “leaders” we have in Washington. There are a few in Congress who understand our fiscal problems, like Ron Paul for example, but sadly they are the minority. And I doubt that they’ll ever effect much meaningful change. If someone like Ron Paul were ever elected to the presidency, they wouldn’t last very long.

We all need to become more self-sufficient by learning to raise our own food. This profligate level of spending and debt creation is simply unsustainable. And it’s going to end badly, and very soon. What is going to happen to the millions of Americans on government assistance when the U.S. government can no longer support them? It is frightening to think about it.

gm_general

Its not just the government, the whole monetary system is an intractable problem, in that more money is owed than can be paid back. But why have debt money at all? Switch to receipt based money, created as a result of commerce. And either no interest charged, or additional money must be created equal to the interest, substitute it for taxes collected. Look up Pennsylvania scrip if you want an example of money done right. Or Google “THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX:
HOW A BANKRUPT GERMANY SOLVED ITS
INFRASTRUCTURE PROBLEMS” and read the Ellen Brown article.

Brad

I know!!! We need another entitlement program!!

That will fix it!!!

/rolleyes

http://food stingray

starve in 2012???

mondobeyondo

The motto on our currency should be changed from “In God We Trust”, to “God Help Us All”.

There is no logical, ethical way out of this Mess that we are in. And if you think there is, you are a member of Congress, or maybe a Federal Reserve chairman.

http://newpapyrusmagazine.blogspot.com Marcel F. Williams

Solutions:

1. End the $100 billion dollar a year occupation of Iraq (they had nothing to do with 9-11)

2. Outsource the war in Afghanistan to the Afghan army whose troops cost at least ten times less than deploying US troops. This would also help the Afghan enconomy

3. Reform the Medicare and Medicaid system into a health care savings account system in order to finally provide incentives for consumers to shop around for doctors and clinics that provide the best health at the lowest cost. Also terminate premium based health care for federal workers and veterans and include them in the health care savings account system. This could all save the Federal government several hundred billion dollars annually. Allow private companies to abandon the premium based health insurance system for their employees and allow them to place money in health care savings account system and the economy would grow substantially.

4.Invest just $1 billion a year in the development of various small breeder reactor technologies that can use the government’s vast spent fuel and depleted uranium resources. These so called nuclear waste resources are worth over $100 trillion in energy that could be used to produce carbon free electricity and carbon neutral synthetic fuels, clean carbon neutral gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, methanol, and hydrogen that we could export all over the world.

5. Invest more money in space colonization and industrialization. A measily $5 billion increase in NASA’s annual budget plus a $1 billion additional investment in private commercial space programs could easily provide enough funds to gradually grow a permanent human and robotic presence on the Moon, the moons of Mars, and the surface of Mars which could help the US to dominate the $100 billion a year satellite based telecommunications industry and possibly a future multi-hundred billion dollar a year space solar power industry.

Funds for space could also be used to build huge lightsails to access asteroid resources in our solar system using only solar energy. These asteroid resources are estimated to be worth several hundred quintillions of dollars in natural resources such as iron, nickle, and platinum.

So you might say that we are actually ‘astronomically’ rich– if we use our brains to invest in future technologies that really require no radical breakthroughs and require only a relatively modest amount of annual investment.

William

How strange it is that the proposed actions from the debt/deficit commission, which just might help some, come at a time when the fools in the US Congress and Obummer are actually considering EXTENDING the Bush tax cuts, which the nation could not afford back in 2001, and we certainly can NOT afford them now. I think we are over the edge right now, with no chance of recovery. It is only a question of how bad it will get, and what it takes to survive.

lostinmissouri

It is well past the time to flush the toilet.

This government needs to fail, and default. With a new government, free of debt, we can return to the U.S. Constitution, and the job of rebuilding.

Can anyone remember who the last President was, that said, “America first, and Americans first?” Me neither.

Tom

Conv: Republicans will only help the rich and the expense of the middle class. Ron Paul is a religous righter that wants to strip our personal freedom so he can create a religous dictatorship.

whoisbiggles

“The U.S. Government Will Never Have A Balanced Budget Ever Again” – I am sorry that statement is a joke.

Whether the deficit reduction plan is put into place or not – once international lenders turn the credit tap off – the U.S. Government at all levels will be forced to default on their debt obligations and will have no choice but have a balanced budget.

Sure once the U.S. Government defaults Americans will be called deadbeats and treated like bums……. But guess what, International Bankers are a stupid lot. How long after Russia, Argentina and countless other defaulting countries defaulted, did they will come back with offers to these deadbeats to lend them money again?

I also take point with #13 “After analysing Congressional Budget Office data, Boston University economics professor Laurence J. Kotlikoff concluded that the U.S. government is facing a “fiscal gap” of $202 trillion dollars.” Kotlikoff is way off in his estimate of the fiscal gap – he has grossly understated the size. Anyone who has actually read the report should realise the flaw in his calculations and he should have added another zero to his estimate – unless of course you accept that the Government sector creates real wealth not just takes taxpayers.

Gabby

Tom,

Stop whinging. You have written that statement more than once. Ron Paul is not a religious right nut. He is a Christian but he does not shove his beliefs down anybody’s throat. Get over yourself, quick before the world ends.

Geez.

GoneWithTheWind

The common thread here is: “Who cares” or “we’re already bankrupt” or “there isn’t enough money to pay the debt”.

All true! BUT what is going to happen is the government isn’t going to go easy. They are going to tax and confiscate until YOU are as broke as they are. Your house value has dropped by 40% and may drop more but if your county is like mine your property taxes went up. Go figure! Don’t ignore the government and assume it will just flush down the drain they fully intend to take YOU with them.

http://www.KeepAmericaAtWork.com Virgil

yes, I do have a solution.
lets seize 75% of all assets that the top 10% have and use it to make us debt free and then make it so that we can never spend more money than what we take in.

After all, they won’t miss it as they stole it from us by sending all of our jobs offshore so that they could be more profitable.

The Tea Party is the only hope to blitzing the establishment into correct judgements.

http://www.danielrevelationbiblestudies.com Robert Stout

The grand solution to this whole mess is for every American to get down on their knees and plead with God for forgiveness for all the tremendous sins we have committed and seek His face for restitution and forgiveness!!! Only then, can we emerge as a better people serving under God!!! We no longer can run away from all these problems, the grand finale is almost upon all of us!!!

Gary2

Bruce-It feels like I am talking to a child when I try to understand the depth of your ignorance. Did you take the short bus to school when you were a kid?

I mean seriously I can’t fathom how your mind must work. (or not work)

Sorry to be blunt, you are probably a nice person but for heavens sake at least copy/paste something that makes some semblance of sense.

Richard W

The Fabian Socialists with their long march through the institutions, it took 150 years, but they finally got it done. Got to hand it to them for persistence.

oldphart

Nationalize the fed, nationalize the banks (national finance is the only socialized system mandated by the Constitution), declare all debt paid in full, establish money based on a basket of goods produced within the United States including precious metals, withdraw the military from all foreign bases and re-focus on borders and ports, commence manpower reduction based on reduced mission scope, eliminate the shadow security over american citizens, cut ALL spending a minimum of 1/3 across the board for all agencies, departments, entitlements and defense systems.
more here at: http://oldphartbsa.newsvine.com/_news/2010/10/05/5231556-im-a-former-republican-and-a-tea-party-sympathizer-my-thoughts-on-fixing-government

Marlene

The only problem I see is that 99% of all these comments have the same attitude as the American public currently. I see only one that thinks like the pioneers who built this country. Most all of us keep focusing on the problem, just like all the politicians we elected. The pioneers of America sought out solutions to fiscal problems by thinking outside the box. If you create a policy of handouts then all you will get is a bunch of DEPENDENTS. Pass out credit cards like a glass of water and you have a society who, like Scarlett…will worry about her problems tomorrow, because tomorrow is another day (full of debt and no way out) Reward the fiscally responsible and educated community and that is what you will get – an intelligent hard working community who knows the value of the dollar. Whether you like or dislike Bush. I remember hearing him beg for a better idea when he was in office. I don’t remember anyone able to offer one…I imagine because we have dummied down our education system and have stopped rewarding achievement. We can no longer think for ourselves. We need big brother to watch over us and he has, but now he is tired and he needs someone to watch over him and get him back on track by reminding him what made him so great. We think everyone should win – whether it is on the playing field or in the classroom – and that “my dear is not how America was built. Our Forefathers lived under a tyrannical government and they did not like it. That is why the American Spirit was born! Have we all forgotten what that is? Instead of rewarding that kind of thinking we have destroyed it. Lord, in spite of our shortcomings, please help us find that American Spirit again. Give us the courage to make the hard decisions and be responsible by living within our means. None of us are entitled to anything, including a free ride. Let us do what is right, not because it will make us rich, but because it is the right thing to do. When we take away the ability of our schools to teach and discipline and we try to take You out of the equation let us remember that it was You who showed us a better way through great, ethical, and intelligent leaders. God Bless America! We all must do whatever we can to create an Independent America! If that is to happen we are ALL GOING TO HAVE TO SACRIFICE. Our children will be better because of it. Punish those who abuse the system and reward those who don’t, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!!!

Haydak

well, we have to abolish the fed and then every state and locality should set up community banks that community residents can store their wealth through, which will in turn allow the banks to lend to local citizens based on this reserve and induce growth for mortgages, loans, etc, on a local level. the problem is the fed (obvious) and that the growing conception is that a global mega-economy is the only solution. as to how our national debt can be repaid, it is impossible. globalism will kill our country. but, as someone (like a roths- or rocka-, i cant remember who at the moment) once said, we can never let another country like america ever happen again!! ah im so exasperated.

RichardL

No one wants to hear this, but I’ll say it again. I voted with my feet. I sold all my possessions and moved my family and I to a more responsible (and more free) country. 8 months now and still having a blast. When the crap hits the fan.. sure it hurts everywhere, but when your in a country with a balanced budget and 80+% self sufficient will it really matter that much?

Kenieth Baker

Technically, the US has been bankrupt since 1971. The whole economic world knows and understands the US’s plight, because they have benefitted from US Petro Dollars, the Euro Dollars being pumped into the world economy.

Nobody can afford for the US to go bankrupt. It will continue to change the book-keeping rules which allow it to issue their currency and credit to the world without limit, and to their advantage.

yukonsean

RichardL — To what country did you move? I’m considering moving my family from the US to New Zealand. We recently were granted Permanent Residency in NZ, but leaving our extended family and friends is the difficult part.

inge

The U.S. political system is broken. It cannot be fixed. Accordingly, neither can the financial abyss we are facing. Except for one unthinkable solution. As the financial crisis unfolds, we will need a very smart military junta to take over. Or as Putin’s advisors have predicted, break apart into a series of regions underpinning new states.

http://alienperfume.net brenda

If you owe a mortgage, have a car payment, student loan, credit card balance, or some other debt, you are a serf (indentured servant).
Forget about “land of the free, home of the brave”, you poor serfs. Your middle class is vanishing quickly while the middle class in so called “3rd world countries” is rapidly getting larger. They are now living like Americans did in the 90´s during the Clinton presidency.

I moved to one of those “3rd world countries” 3 years ago. One of the best decisions I ever made.
And hey, I even have a pc, a laptop, cable tv, etc. Just bought a kilo (2 pounds) of strawberries for less than 50 cents. My groceries for the week for 2 adults cost 20 bucks and that includes fresh fish,chicken (no drugs or hormones added) eggs, fresh vegetables and fruits, etc.